How to Be a Data Scientist: Data Science Skill Development

To the wide business community, a Data Scientist is one of those “data magicians,” who can acquire disparate data masses from diverse business functions; clean, massage, organize, and prepare the data; and, then exploit their inherent skills in mathematics, statistics, and Machine Learning to uncover hidden business insights and intelligence. The data used by a Data Scientist can be both structured (metrics or raw numbers) and unstructured (e-mails, images, videos, or social data). As Data Scientists often have to create algorithms to extract insights from such complex data, these “data magicians” are expected to be equipped with a variety of skills and experience levels. Data Science skill development has been an issue of ongoing debate and continues to raise questions about the appropriate training programs available in Data Science. A…